Packwood Goes Quickly Into Exile From Senate Announces Resignation Plans Day After Ethics Vote

Prodded by angry Democrats to go quickly, Sen. Bob Packwood set Oct. 1 as the effective date for his resignation and relinquished his powerful committee chairmanship immediately.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., selected Sen. William V. Roth Jr., R-Del., to replace Packwood as chairman of the Finance Committee with jurisdiction over taxes, Medicare and welfare.

“We’re going to move as quickly as possible,” Roth told reporters at a 20-minute meeting with Dole on Friday evening.

Roth must be ratified by Republican members of the committee and by the full GOP caucus in the Senate. He said he expected to formally take control on Tuesday.

Brought down by a Senate Ethics Committee finding of sexual misconduct and abuse of power, Packwood fixed the departure date Friday in a scripted exchange of correspondence that Dole read aloud on the Senate floor.

“I believe that it is in the best interests of the Senate and the state of Oregon to reach closure on this matter as soon as possible,” Dole wrote his friend and colleague of a quarter-century.

Dole had earlier suggested that Packwood be permitted to remain in office for 60 to 90 days, but that sparked fury from some Democrats.

“I think he has lost his moral authority to be here, period,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., one day after the Oregon Republican announced plans to resign rather than face an expulsion vote.

Such an arrangement would be “absolutely inappropriate given the fact that he has now resigned under a toxic cloud,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., a member of the Ethics Committee that painstakingly investigated his case.

Packwood was not on the Senate floor when Dole read the exchange of letters.

“I hereby tender my resignation as of Oct. 1, 1995. I also am relinquishing today, Friday, Sept. 8, my chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Finance,” wrote Packwood, who announced plans to resign in a tearful floor speech Thursday afternoon.

Packwood went to the Senate floor several times during the day to cast votes on amendments proposed for pending welfare legislation. When he did slightly more - making a routine parliamentary motion, for example - Democrats made their unhappiness clear.

The longer Packwood remains in office, the longer Republicans can make use of his expertise on legislation dealing with welfare and other items critical to the GOP agenda. As Finance Committee chairman, Packwood has been deeply involved in drafting measures to carve billions of savings from Medicare and Medicaid, as well as with the welfare bill.

Even before his official departure, the wheels of succession were turning.

Roth had phoned other GOP members of the panel seeking their support for his ascension. “History has proven that when taxes are low, the economy grows,” he said in a written statement. “It’s that simple.”

The roster of politicians interested in succeeding Packwood in the Senate grew rapidly and included the entire five-member House delegation. Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Furse declared her candidacy, and fellow Democrats Ron Wyden and Peter DeFazio seemed likely to follow. GOP Rep. Jim Bunn was interested, and fellow Republican Rep. Wes Cooley said he might be as well.

Inside the Senate, there was another succession, for a soon-to-be vacant seat on the Finance Committee. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he was thinking of claiming the seat, a decision complicated by the fact that he’d have to surrender the chairmanship of a key appropriations subcommittee.

All of this occurred within 24 hours after Packwood emotionally told his Senate colleagues that he would resign, saying, “It’s the honorable thing to do.”

Packwood’s decision came one day after the Ethics Committee voted 6-0 to recommend his expulsion for making unwanted sexual advances on 17 women, tampering with personal diaries the panel sought as evidence and seeking employment from lobbyists for his estranged wife.

Senate sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Packwood’s decision was sealed at a noon meeting in his Capitol hideaway where two friends, GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Alan Simpson of Wyoming, told him it was time to give up his fight to save his seat.